A Republican effort to stop states from implementing their very own AI laws cleared a key procedural hurdle on Saturday.
The rule, as reportedly rewritten by Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz in an try to adjust to budgetary guidelines, would withhold federal broadband funding from states in the event that they attempt to implement AI laws within the subsequent 10 years.
And the rewrite appears to have handed muster, with the Senate Parliamentarian now ruling that the availability is just not topic to the so-called Byrd rule — so it may be included in Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and handed with a easy majority, with out probably getting blocked by a filibuster, and with out requiring help from Senate Democrats.
Nonetheless, it’s not clear what number of Republicans will help the moratorium. For instance, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee recently said, “We do not need a moratorium that would prohibit our states from stepping up and protecting citizens in their state.”
And whereas the Home of Representatives already handed a model of the invoice that included a moratorium on AI regulation, far-right Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene subbsequently declared that she is “adamantly OPPOSED” the availability as “a violation of state rights” and mentioned it must be “stripped out in the Senate.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson defended the provision by saying it had President Donald Trump’s help and arguing, “We have to be careful not to have 50 different states regulating AI, because it has national security implications, right?”
In a recent report, Individuals for Accountable Innovation (an advocacy group for AI regulation), wrote that “the proposal’s broad language could potentially sweep away a wide range of public interest state legislation regulating AI and other algorithmic-based technologies, creating a regulatory vacuum across multiple technology policy domains without offering federal alternatives to replace the eliminated state-level guardrails.”
Quite a few states do appear to be taking steps towards AI regulation. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a high-profile AI security invoice final yr whereas signing numerous much less controversial laws round points like privateness and deepfakes. In New York, an AI security invoice handed by state lawmakers is awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. And Utah has passed its own regulations around AI transparency.
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